


dreams

by atsueshi



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen, OTP Battle, SNK AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-28
Updated: 2014-02-28
Packaged: 2018-01-14 01:38:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1247941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atsueshi/pseuds/atsueshi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tetsu was right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	dreams

The day was over, and Daiki only watched as the rest of the legion clean up the remaining titans. 

     He was sitting atop Wall Rose, overlooking the wreckage of the new breach in the walls of Shinganshina; it had been a long campaign today. He killed around twenty of the nasty monsters, two more than Kise had, and Kise went away earlier mumbling about how he’d beat his kill count someday, something Daiki was pretty sure was unlikely.

     It was enough to make him laugh—Kise always found ways to be amusing, even in light of the direness of their situation. Only… Well, Daiki had a lot on his mind today. Even after two years, he still couldn’t wrap his mind around the reality of death around him. Witnessing death and destruction first-hand did nothing to dispel the horror that came with watching a comrade die…

     Sakurai’s last words were, “I’m sorry, Aomine-san, please save yourself.”

     Unconsciously his hands curled into tight fists; Sakurai Ryou had been a friend, after all, and it was rooted on more than the constant food supply he used to sneak out and share with Daiki. 

     He felt guilty, listening to the sound of his beating heart, loud in his ears despite the ruckus around him. “I’m sorry, Ryou,” Daiki mumbled into the air that smelled strongly of burning corpses.

     A shadow blocked his view of the smoke-filled district. Daiki didn’t bother looking up to see; it could only be one person.

     “I’m sure he understands, Aomine-kun. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”

     Daiki grunted and motioned to the ground next to him. Tetsu complied, sitting down and quietly joining him as they both watched the legion swing back and forth, rounding up the last of the bodies and bringing victims to the camp for healing and recovery. Kise whizzed past them, singing some kind of victory song in a foreign language, eventually slamming face-first into the tower when he chose to belt out the last lines and close his eyes. Tetsu laughed. “Kise-kun is such an idiot sometimes.”

     Daiki sighed, chuckled a little, and did not bother agreeing to something nearly all the Scouting Legion knew. Instead he stayed silent in an attempt to clear his mind, but his brain was still asking all the wrong questions, and he was afraid that if he didn’t say them out loud he’d probably go crazy.

     “Oi, Tetsu.”

     “Yes?”

     “How do we get through this?”

     It was a hard question that warranted a near-impossible answer. Tetsu hummed thoughtfully and they lapsed once more into silence as he let him think in relative peace.

     While waiting for Tetsu’s answer, Daiki looked long and hard at him, the setting sun throwing his profile into sharp relief as colours played with the shadows of his face, and wondered idly how he could remain so calm despite everything: family lost to titans at the tender age of ten, lived alone in his house in the mountains of Shinganshina with only a small dog for company, entered the Scouting Legion at fifteen and very nearly died from the training if Daiki hadn’t stepped in. Gods, wherever and whatever they were, made Tetsu suffer for too long, and yet it was Tetsu who once told him that fighting was the only way, that someday they’ll see the ocean. Daiki recalled the one time Tetsu punched him for shouting at Kise’s optimism: Tetsu hit him hard and told him off, and after that Daiki’s whole outlook changed.

     Now that he thought about it, Tetsu changed him a lot.

     Tetsu was still lost in thought when Daiki moved closer to rest his shoulder against Tetsu’s, and his silence was perfectly understandable. Daiki knew he was putting a lot into Tetsu’s hands by asking him for some sort of reassurance given the bleakness of the situation. Daiki was supposed to be Tetsu’s pillar, they had sworn to it the first time they realised how well together they worked, but there were moments — like these, when he sees a friend die — that completely tore down Daiki’s walls, and every time he turned to Tetsu, because Tetsu was Tetsu and he always knew the right things to say.

     Apparently not this time.

     “I’m sure Aomine-kun will think of a way. I…” Tetsu seemed to hesitate, couldn’t quite bring himself to say the words out loud, and took Daiki’s hand. His palm was sweaty and cold. “I’m not sure I’ll get through this, but I’m sure Aomine-kun will.”

      _What?_ Daiki glared at Tetsu and squeezed Tetsu’s hand a little harder than he probably should have. “Oi, oi, what do you mean, you won’t get through this?”

     Tetsu smiled wanly. “Exactly that.” When Daiki remained looking confused, Tetsu went on. “I keep having these dreams. Of dying. Of bright lights and heavy mists and a sudden peace that falls over me. I’d wake up all sweaty and afraid, and there are hardly any images in my dreams.” He traced flowers on Daiki’s hand, and as the sun set and night fell, the colours faded from Tetsu’s face. Daiki felt a different kind of fear resurface, the same fear that was there the night he lost his captain to a stray titan that invaded the castle in the far north, only this time felt like it was carving out pieces of his heart as it went and filled him with dread. Tetsu’s smile was still in place as he let go of Daiki’s hand and looked up at him, eyes full of apologies. “I can’t help but feel as if I won’t wake up someday. The dreams feel like… Like premonitions. I will not be surprised if one day you find me on the streets, dead and alone—”

    “—Shut  _up_.” Anger welled up inside of Daiki, making it harder to control himself. “Shut up, don’t say that, Tetsu.”

     “Aomine-kun—”

     “No,  _shut up_ , I don’t want to hear it.” Daiki stood up, launched his 3DMG, and flew away from the wall to wherever the gear would take him.

     He did not look back, and did not see Tetsu for dinner that night.


End file.
